LJWorld.com

Last night, Carey Oroke finally broke the news to her parents.

She's one of three Kansas University students in Playboy magazine's 10-page "Girls of the Big 12" pictorial.

View the photo gallery

She's on page 139.

"I'm really kind of scared about it because I really love them a lot and they are great, great parents," she said early Wednesday evening before surprising them with the news. "But I'm anticipating that it's not going to go over very well."

Oroke, who's from Tonganoxie, asked that her parents' names not appear in the newspaper.

"It's going to be bad enough without that," she said. "I don't care what anybody else thinks, but I'm really worried about my parents. I love them more than anything in world."

Oroke, a 22-year-old senior majoring in exercise physiology, hasn't seen her picture yet, but she knows she's nude, posing in a Volkswagen mini-van.

"That's one of the reasons I haven't told them yet. I wanted to see it first," she said.

Copies of Playboy's October edition began arriving in 3.15 million subscribers' mailboxes earlier this week.

¢ World Online photo gallery ¢ World Online video: Playboy is looking for a few good women ¢ Excerpts of interviews with Carey and Kristin ¢ 4/24/02: KU students pose for Playboy photo session to 'show spirit' ¢ Excerpts from the Jayhawk coeds' interview with Playboy

It'll be on newsstands today.

"It's one of our top-selling issues," said Theresa Hennessey, a spokeswoman for Playboy.

Also appearing in the pictorial are KU students:

• Jennifer Whalen, 22, a communications major from St. Louis.
• Kristin Black, 20, a Wichita junior majoring in business, minoring in French.

Black said a friend, Kevin Culp, talked her into trying out.

"We met at a Halloween party," she said. "I went as a Playboy bunny, and then when Playboy came to Lawrence, he talked me into trying out."

Black said she had no regrets. "Oh, I had a great time," she said. "I've seen the picture ¢ a friend of mine in Texas e-mailed it to me. It's not bad."

She added, "If they came back, I'd do it again. But I wouldn't do it for any other magazine."

Dozens of KU women posed for Playboy during April 22-23 tryouts in Lawrence.

Black said her mother, who lives in Lenexa, wasn't bothered by her appearing in the magazine. But her father, she said, "wasn't real thrilled about it."

She, too, withheld her parents' names.

Black appears on page 135, wearing only a top.

For their troubles, Playboy paid each woman $500. They'll get $200 for taking part in autograph sessions from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Jayhawk Bookstore, 1420 Crescent Road, and from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Hastings Books, Music and Video, 1900 W. 23rd St.

Whalen could not be reached for comment. Excerpts from an interview with Whalen are featured on the magazine's Web site, www.Playboy.com.

In the interview, Whalen describes Lawrence as "really sexually diverse" and having "a surprisingly high gay population."

KU's sorority girls, she said, were the "wildest," while the basketball players "get the most action, hands down."

More than 60 Big 12 students appear in the layout, including three from Kansas State University.

Update, August 22: Parents take student's Playboy news in stride

August 23: Local shop gets advance shipment of Playboys

August 23: Shop owner expects high local demand for Playboy issue